Orissa Crime Branch special director general (DG) Bijay Kumar Sharma who assumed office Friday after his promotion interacted with Orissa POST reporter Asish Mehta and shared the future plans of his department.
What steps would you like to adopt to strengthen Orissa Police and make it honest?
This is not my jurisdiction. Orissa DGP is the one who will look into such matters. I will surely contribute towards keeping cops physically and mentally fit by training them, preparing them to do more robust investigation including cyber crimes. “According to role given to me, my responsibility is to control crime that includes cyber crimes too.”
Minor girls are being sexually assaulted in slums. What preventive steps will you take in this regard?
People, who indulge in such activities, represent pervert mental condition. To curb incidents of rape, the role of civil society is pivotal. We have been organising self-defence training modules for women to strengthen them to handle any untoward incident.
Many Bangladeshi nationals are trespassing into the country, especially Orissa. What steps will you take to check this influx?
The police are assigned with the task of checking this issue. But the Crime Branch will look if these people are getting counterfeit Indian currency printed in Bangladesh. We are gathering intelligence about the clusters where they are staying illegally.
Despite the Supreme Court ban on sale of acid, it is still available. What are your plans to curb this? We have issued a circular to all police stations to find out who are selling acid. The number of acid attacks in the state in 2015 is not very high. Six cases of acid attacks were reported in 2015. But, we have to keep a close eye on the miscreants selling acid illegally.
Suspected al-Qaeda facilitator Abdur Rehman was reportedly hiring fighters for AQIS. How will you carry forward the probe in this connection?
Although Orissa is not a hot bed of jihadi activists, handling of such cases needs enhancing the special task force. STF will gather intelligence about such elements and interact with anti-terror outfits of other states.
Cyber crimes are increasing. What measures will Orissa Police take to control this?
The cops are now not reluctant to register cyber crime cases. In 2014, 127 cases of cyber crimes were registered, and in 2015, 404 cases across the state. At least three training programmes were arranged last year for cops on dealing with cyber crimes. Three such programmes will also be organised this year and the first programme will be held in March. A cyber forensics division will be set-up at State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) to deal with cyber crimes. An exclusive cyber police station will also be set-up for which the state government has provided land. We have proposals to set up cyber crime stations in Berhampur, Rourkela and Sambalpur. PNN
